Author Archives

I'm a philosophy professor at the University of Lethbridge in Southern Alberta, Canada. I specialize in philosophy of war, game theory, contractarianism, and theodicy (the Problem of Evil). I am bald, fat, and ugly, but my wife loves me, so I don't care.

• HOW TO MAKE WHITE LIVES MATTER

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 21, 2021 • ( 1 )

  Now that Asian Lives Matter has eclipsed the Black Lives Matter movement, if only for a week or two, I wonder what it’ll take to get a White Lives Matter movement off the ground. Probably some black man walking into… Read More ›

• THE UNIVERSITY SPEAKS WITH FORKED TONGUE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 20, 2021 • ( 3 )

  It’s good that I’ve recused myself from all hiring committees here at the University of Lethbridge, because if I hadn’t I’d worry I might succumb to overkill and vote against any candidate who wasn’t able-bodied, heterosexual, white, and male. “Huh?!”… Read More ›

• ONE DAY IN AN ESL CLASS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 8, 2021 • ( 2 )

  Teacher: Okay class, that’s it for today. Oh, and one last thing. Never use the n-word.Student: What’s the n-word?Teacher: I’m not allowed to say.Student: Huh?! Uh, can you at least tell us how it’s used?Teacher: Sure. It’s the offensive word… Read More ›

• BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 3, 2021 • ( 1 )

  Okay, Ms Snowflake, we could go back to arranged marriages, but I’m guessing you don’t want to do that. So in the post-patriarchal world, how exactly are men and women – or men and men, or women and women –… Read More ›

• WHAT?!

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 22, 2021 • ( 2 )

  Saturday Night Live has come under fire this weekend for having made the following joke: “Israel just announced it has now vaccinated half its population. I’m guessing it’s the Jewish half.”  I can understand why some people think that any… Read More ›

• TAKING THE REVERSE OUT OF REVERSE DISCRIMINATION

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 20, 2021 • ( 3 )

  Suppose I’m a black woman who’s just been denied a job, or accommodation, or whatever, because I’m a black woman, notwithstanding that most of my black brothers and sisters are not being denied these things, at least in the community… Read More ›

• CAUGHT BETWEEN A ROCK AND THE COULEES

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 19, 2021 • ( 0 )

  Back in 2003 the University of Lethbridge declined to honour its guarantees of confidentiality, and so for the last 17 years I haven’t served on any University-related committee involving that guarantee. In 2016 academic freedom was placed under constructive suspension… Read More ›

• REQUIEM FOR THE UNIVERSITY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 19, 2021 • ( 1 )

  Universities are like any other institution. They evolve, they devolve. Sometimes they rise out of the ashes, and sometimes they go the way of the dodo bird. But they always morph. So though I’ve recently come to co-awfulise with my… Read More ›

• ADMINSPEAK

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 19, 2021 • ( 13 )

  Had we been able to complete the tower we’d have been up there to take Him on face to face. And so to prevent this – He’s a jealous god, remember – He broke us up into different languages, so… Read More ›

• PREEMPTIVE INSURGENCY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 14, 2021 • ( 3 )

  I’ve made no secret elsewhere – but so far not on this blog – of what I take to be the driver of both our moral dispositions and our political arrangements. It is, as Thomas Hobbes argued, the wherewithal to… Read More ›